Developing World Tourism "Not Living Up to Its Promise"

Tourism is developing unsustainably in many poorer nations and failing to deliver major economic gains,, or is it?

The sector is often lauded as a valuable source of income for developing countries with beautiful environments. But it is not creating better infrastructure such as roads and clean water the audience heard last week at the annual international conference of the UK’s Royal Geographical Society.

Vishal Singh, a researcher at the Centre for Ecology, Development and Research in India, told the event that "not enough is invested in local development" through tourism companies.

Singh gave the example of a lake near Sukhatal, a tourist attraction in the Himalayas. "The lake has halved in size in nine years due to pumping and irrigation, but no local tourism revenue has ever been put into its conservation" he said.

On the other hand, according to the Worldwatch Institute, tourism is a crucial source of foreign currency for the world’s 40 poorest countries.

However, research presented at the conference proposed that tourism can also directly harm the environment while generating ever-higher carbon emissions through international travel.

The conference heard that carbon dioxide emissions from tourists’ travel may quadruple by 2100, making a significant contribution to climate change, which disproportionately affects developing countries.

Tourism  currently contributes around five per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions, UN agency the World Tourism Organization reports.

This goal of a "clean sector" is not being achieved, said Paul Peeters, who researches sustainable tourism at NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. He is urging the travel industry to make tourism more sustainable by reducing air and car travel and becoming less wasteful.

He told the conference the tourism sector was under increasing pressure to reduce its environmental impact from agriculture and electricity companies, which also have to cut emissions in countries with strict legislation.

Melanie Stroebel, who researches environmental governance at the University of Manchester, said it is important to discover exactly which firms in the tourist sector are causing environmental harm so they can be held accountable. However, because of powerful interests, "a radical change in the tourism business context seems unlikely".

Stroebel argued that proposed sustainability measures such as reducing air travel could harm developing countries.

Clearly tourism supports local retailers and creates jobs, mostly in the hotel and restaurant sector. "There are economic benefits involved," she told the event.

In the Maldives, for example, tourism generates 42 per cent of GDP according to the WTTC.

But Paul Peeters avers that tourism is a poor way to drive economic growth because it mainly offers basic jobs such as working in hotels or restaurants.

Valere Tjolle

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